Sustainability

Bring it in, take it out!

Last year as you may remember us mentioning, Redcycle the soft plastics recycling company collapsed, leaving nowhere to send plastics. We have tried to come up with an alternative, however for the moment there is little available for schools. Therefore, this year students will be returning as much of their packaging as possible in their lunchboxes when they take them home.

This will help us in two ways. Firstly, a plus for family budgets and parents will see what their children are eating (sometimes whole muesli bars etc. are thrown unopened into the bin, without parents realising it isn’t being eaten), and secondly, it will help spread the load of packaging across many bins. You can imagine the amount of daily rubbish from all our students. What is put out by our bathrooms and classroom activities, fills our landfill bins very quickly. 

Rationale for the initiative

“We produce 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, equating to 100 kg per person. Of this, only 13% of plastic is recovered and 84% is sent to landfill. And it’s getting worse . . . ”  

(Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment | National Plastics Plan 2021)

“Households are responsible for nearly half of all plastic waste.” 

(Australian Bureau of Statistics)

Newham PS currently generates the following amounts of soft plastic from student snacks/lunches alone: 1200 litres per year (1.2 cubic metres). This does not include tetra packs that go to landfill, hard plastic single use snack/yoghurt containers and plastic juice bottles.

As Newham PS is a 5-star ResourceSmart school, we believe that reducing plastic and other waste is our first priority, before reusing and then lastly recycling. In spite of our efforts to provide waste sorting bins in each classroom, the amount of soft and hard plastics that still end up in the school yard, the adjacent paddocks and the waterway needs to be prevented. We believe that if wrappers and other plastics are immediately returned to lunchboxes, there is less chance that they will find their way into these other areas.  We will continue to happily collect food scraps to feed to our compost bin. The Newham General Store is also using compostable paper bags for lunch order items. All of this will contribute to Newham PS continuing to be an exemplary sustainable ResourceSmart school.

Goals of the initiative

• To reduce the amount of single use plastics being brought to Newham PS.
• To reduce the amount of plastic litter on Newham PS grounds and in the surrounding environment (tributary, pasture and gutters).
• To reduce the amount of plastic travelling through waterways and into the ocean.
• To foster a more locally and globally sustainable mindset. 
• To foster an understanding of personal responsibility in students.
• To encourage more nude food options for snacks and lunches by providing more resources to families.

Ideas for nude food lunch options  

We understand that life is busy and having time to bake or organise nude food lunch boxes can be challenging for some families. However, if you're thinking about more nude food in lunchboxes, the following websites have some quick and easy ideas.

My top tips for waste free lunchboxes - Nudie Rudie Lunch Box

Nude Food Made Simple - Healthy Kids

Nude Food - Wipe Out Waste

One Week of Lunchbox Ideas for Kids - The Organised Housewife

15 Nude Food Containers - Mum's Grapevine

2023 Sustainability Leaders

Our new sustainability leaders for 2023, Freya, Leo, Lewis and Sophie have been busy since week one. They have organised a new system for emptying the compost bins, have scheduled their weekly tasks for taking out and bringing in landfill and recycling roadside collection bins, thought about ways we can reduce waste at Newham PS (sauce bottles for all classrooms), informed all classes of our 'Bring it in, take it home' initiative, filled up our frog bog and have worked out where we have a slow leak. All this and we are only at the end of week two! They are showing excellent leadership skills and initiative which will contribute to great outcomes for the many projects they will be working on throughout the year.

School Procedure for Bushfire Season

The school develops and updates its Emergency Management Plan every year. This plan details what we will do to keep our students and staff safe if there is an emergency. Our school uses the oval or the asphalt area as evacuation points. Our main building is our safe refuge building if we are required to “shelter in place” during any emergency. We also have an “off site” evacuation point: the Newham Hall. We do regular emergency drills to prepare students, and to test that our procedures work. 

In this area, and at this time of year particularly, we are all very aware of the threat of fires. Every family is advised to have their own bushfire plan. On days when there is an increased bushfire risk, every family should enact their plan. If this plan requires your family to leave the area, due to the heightened risk, then please advise the school of your child’s absence. 

On days of high fire danger that are not deemed as Code Red, the school will operate as usual. Please note that when weather conditions are extreme, we minimise children’s outside play time to keep them as comfortable as possible.The way schools in Victoria respond to bushfires is constantly monitored, and reviewed as needed. Fire danger ratings and warnings are used in Victoria to provide clear direction on the safest options for preserving life. 

Schools – and children’s services – identified as being at highest bushfire risk have been included on the Bushfire-At Risk Register (BARR) and will be closed on days determined by fire authorities to be Code Red. Our school has been identified as a school with a level 3 bushfire risk and is listed on the BARR. 

Where possible, we will provide parents with up to three days notice of a planned closure following the issue of a Code Red warning by the CFA. 

We will contact you directly by uEducateUs and/or letter sent home with your child with advice on planned closures and will confirm the decision to close by 12 noon the day before the planned closure. Once confirmed, the decision to close will not change, regardless of improvements in the weather forecast. This is to avoid confusion and help your family plan alternative care arrangements for your child. 

• No staff will be on site on Code Red days when the school is closed by the risk of fire. 
• Out-of-school care will be cancelled on these days. 
• School camps will be cancelled if the area where the camp is taking place is at risk. 
• There may also be changes to school bus routes. Depending on routes, this may also occur on days when the school is not closed. 

On Code Red days families are encouraged to enact their Bushfire Survival Plan – on such days, children should never be left at home unattended or in the care of older children. For those of us living in a bushfire-prone area, the safest option when a Code Red day is declared may be to leave the night before, or early in the morning of the Code Red day.

As part of preparing our school for the threat of fire we have updated our emergency management plan; reprioritised any maintenance works that may assist in preparing for the threat of fire and cleared our school grounds. We also practise our emergency procedures with the children. 

You can access more information about school closures on the Department of Education website – see http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/pages/emergencies.aspx 

For up-to-date information on this year’s fire season and Bushfire Survival Planning, visit the CFA website at www.cfa.vic.gov.au or call the 24-hour Victorian Bushfires Information Line on 1800 240 667.